9/26/08

Last night Washington Mutual was taken over by the Federal Government.  The banking portion of the business was sold to JP Morgan.  I have no idea what this will mean for the local economy, but you have to guess it will raise the unemployment rate in the city substantially.

John McCain has been flailing around trying to look important and presidential.  I think he has failed to appear presidential, and I think he has actually managed to look impetuous and erratic.  He said he was "suspending his campaign" though he has not really stopped fundraising or advertising.  He tried to beg out of the presidential debate tonight, saying he needed to be in Washington DC to help congress reach a bail out agreement for lending institutions.  Now it sounds like he'll be at the debate tonight.  

I have always predicted that Obama would win the popular vote, lose the electoral college.  I hope he will  win, and I just donated $300 to his campaign last night.

I am afraid for the debate.  I hope it goes well for Obama, but I hate watching these things when the stakes are so high.

Emma and Fina are sick.  They have slight fevers - around 100.5 to 101.5.  They had trouble sleeping.  I think they got this from Logan, who may have gotten it from me.  I hope they get over this quickly.

9/16/08

Over the past few days the economy has been in turmoil due to some high profile failures of financial companies.  The government took over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the Federal Reserve has purchased AIG.  Lehman Brothers collapsed, and the stock market has collapsed.  All of this was triggered by the mortgage financing crisis - too many subprime loans have gone bad, causing a chain reaction throughout the economy.

I'm a little worried about my brokerage account at Wells Fargo.  Wells Fargo is supposedly relatively insulated from the mortgage crisis, but the brokerage account is not FDIC insured.  Therefore I'm a bit nervous.  I feel like I should move the money to a safer account, but I also feel that I shouldn't panic.

Logan's imagination is growing quite a bit.  He likes to imagine that the bed is a spaceship, and that the lights in the ceiling are stars.  Alternately, the bed can be a boat, and then he dives into the water on the floor.  The rug in the basement is snow.  A pile of pillows is a house.

Fina and Emma are starting to interact with objects.  They are grabbing shirts and batting at hanging objects.  They are using the "baby gym" - a blanket with two fabric covered arches over it from which you can hang toys - more often.

9/11/08

Today on the way to work I saw some harbor seals!  They were eating salmon in Elliott bay.  Seagulls were hovering nearby to try and scoop up some scraps.  I think I counted about five or six seals.

I took these photos off of pier 66 - the large pier where they used to have the concerts.

9/9/08

Fina and Emma are smiling and looking at things.  They know who mommy is by sight - when we go for our evening walk Emma gets upset when we're walking in a shaded area because she can't see mom's face.

Emma is kicking and trying to hit objects.  Fina is making some sort of cooing noises.  They're starting to react to the world around them, which is pretty neat.

Logan and Hieid were in the zoo yesterday.  Logan ran under a chain with a sign hanging from it that read "Do not enter."  Heidi grabbed Logan and brought him back to the sign.  She pointed to the sign and said "Logan, this spells Do Not Enter."  Logan disagreed, saying "No, mommy, it spells go this way!"

9/4/08

Yesterday we were looking at a catalog of expensive children's Halloween costumes.  They had all of the usual costumes: princess, pirates, and sesame street characters.  Heidi was showing Logan a picture of a child in a cookie monster suit, and asked "who is this?"  Logan looked at the picture closely and muttered quietly "cookie monster."  Then, after a short pause, he asked "why is cookie monster eating that baby?"  Sure enough, the costume was designed to have the kids face look out from cookie monsters house.  If you thought about it, the outfit did look like a cookie monster with a kid head in it's mouth.  Yikes!

Fina and Emma had their two month checkup yesterday.  They're growing like weeds!  They seem to be healthy!  And they had their first vaccinations.